GANGS SPREAD ECSTASY DRUG FOR BRITISH HOLIDAY PARTIES

LONDON -- Drug dealers are flooding Britain with millions of dollars'
worth of unstable ecstasy pills in preparation for the millennium
celebration, investigators warn.

The National Criminal Investigation Service believes that criminal
gangs are shipping large amounts of the drug from the Netherlands to
feed British demand for parties and raves between Christmas and New
Year's Eve.

British Customs officers have seized 715 pounds of ecstasy -- about
1.3 million tablets -- since October. That is more than its entire
haul for 1998. Customs warned that many of the tablets, marked "M,"
"Y2K" and "2000," will be particularly dangerous because short cuts
have been taken in the manufacturing process. The pills are being made
in bulk, and some will be three or four times more powerful than
normal, authorities said.

"Our fear is that a lot of people might consider taking ecstasy for
the first time on New Year's Eve because it is such a special
occasion," an official said.

Criminals in Britain have started setting up drug factories to make
the pills. The investigation service said gangs are spending up to
$157,000 to equip laboratories to produce the highest yields and have
smuggled the chemical ingredients from China and Eastern Europe.

One dealer hired a qualified chemist and paid him $15,000 a day, the
source said. Eight synthetic drug factories have been discovered in
Britain this year and 39 people arrested.

"It is a high-profit, low-risk enterprise," the official said. "They
are not interested in whether the drugs are safe or not, and the
buyers can hardly go back to the manufacturer and complain. We believe
dealers will be trying to sell these pills at every street party and
celebration."

Nick Wilson, head of the drug section at the investigation service,
said millennium celebrations offered drug traffickers the perfect
opportunity to expand their markets. "The festive season, with its
emphasis on extended partying, has created an unprecedented demand for
dangerous drugs, a demand that organized crime is only too happy to
meet," he said.

"The relentless criminal pursuit at any human cost has created a
highly dangerous environment. People who buy illegal drugs have no way
of knowing the true content of what they are buying."